Dredger



March 1, 1938. R. G. LE TOURNEAU DREDGER Filed June 30, 1937 2Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR R. GLeTo urn eau/ BY .M. .sv

' ATTORNEY t &

March 1, 1938. TOURNEAU 7 2,109,730

DREDGER Filed June 50, 1937 I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR R.GiLeToLuyzeau/f Q ms;

ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 1, 1938 DREDGER Robert Gilmore Le Tourneau,Peoria, 111., assignor to R. G. Le Tourneau, Inc., a corporation ofCalifornia Application June 30, 1923, Serial No. 151,148

6 Claims.

This invention relates to dredges such as are generally used in quietinland waters and which are maintained in position by spuds, andparticularly deals with the construction and manipulation of the hull ofthe dredger.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a dredger of theabove general character whose hull is so constructed that the dredgingelement may be swung through a wide arc without disturbing the spuds,and which may be moved along the water by proper manipulation of thespuds in conjunction with the pulling action of certain cables, andwithout the aid of any tug or other external power or the use of anyexternal anchor or deadman other than the spuds.

In this manner the dredging position of the dredge, and of the dredgingelement may be easily and quickly altered as the area being dredgednecessitates and operating costs and time of operation are reducedaccordingly.

A further object of the invention is to produce a simple and inexpensivedevice and yet one which will be exceedingly efiective for the purposefor which it is designed.

These. objects I accomplish by means of such structure and relativearrangement of parts as will fully appear by a perusal of the followingspecification and claims.

In the drawings similar characters of reference indicate correspondingparts in the several views:

Figure 1 is a top plan of my improved dredger hull, the arrangement ofthe cable drums, cables and their guide pulleys being shown somewhatdiagrammatically.

Figure 2 is a side elevation of the structure.

Referring now more particularly to the characters of reference on thedrawings, the hull comprises a main front portion I and a tail or finportion 2. The main hull carries the dredging structure 3 which may beof the suction, bucket or other type, which projects from the front endof the hull and which of itself forms no part of my invention. The powerplant 4 and other operating mechanism of the dredger structure is alsomounted on the main hull.

The adjacent ends of the main hull and tail are cut on a longitudinalslope to a central apex, with an included angle of substantially 90, soas to leave wide angular spaces betweenthe hull sections at their sideswhen said sections are longitudinally alined. At their apex the hullsections are connected together by a heavy vertical hinge or pivot pin 5so that the sections can swing relative to each other in a horizontalplane, but are maintained rigid with each other in a vertical plane.

At its rear corners the tail section 2 carries vertical guide sleeves 6for the spuds l. A derrick frame 8 is mounted on the tall at its rearend and supports pulleys 9 overhanging the spuds, the height of thederricks being of course suflicient to enable the spuds to be raisedpractically clear of the water. Individual cables l extend from the topof the spuds over the corresponding pulleys 9, about direction changingpulleys II on the tail adjacent the hinge pin 5, and then over otherdirection changing pulleys I! on the main hull to separate cable drumsl3 driven from a suitable power plant ll mounted on said main hull. Thetype of hoist and power plant used may be of any suitable design, aheavy duty Diesel engine being preferably employed asthe power plant. Bymeans of this arrangement these spuds may be individually lowered orraised without imparting any material swinging action to the hullsections.

Mounted on the hull sections adjacent their sides approximately at thebeginning of the sloping end portions thereof in sheave blocks l aboutwhich individual cables l6 extend, the cables being deadended at onepair of the blocks. The cables then extend over suitably disposed guideand direction changing pulleys I-l on the main hull section to otherseparate power driven drums I8 on said hull.

In operation, to move ahead one spud I is raised clear of the bottom andthe cable It on the loosened spud side is shortened, thus closing up theangle between the adjacent ends of the hull sections and advancing themain hull section some distance. The loose or raised spud is thendropped and anchored and the other spud is raised and the cable pullingoperation is repeated on the opposite side. These operations arealternately repeated until the dredge has been advanced the desireddistance. To move the dredge in the reverse direction, the process ormethod of operation above described is just reversed. The dredge canalso be moved in any other direction than relatively straight ahead byregulating the amount of pull on the opposed cables IS with thealternate operation thereof. Also the main hull section can be swungthrough an arc of approximately 150 when'both spuds are anchored, bypulling on one or the other of the cables l6 while allowing the opposedcable to run slack.

From the foregoing description it will be readily seen that I haveproduced such a device as subset forth herein.

While this specification sets forth in detail the present and preferredconstruction of the device, still in practice such deviations from suchdetail may be resorted to as do not form a. departure from the spirit ofthe invention, as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and useful anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A dredge structure comprising longitudinally separate hull portions,means hinging said portions at adjacent ends for relative swingingmovement in a horizontal plane, a dredging mechanism carried by onehull'portion, separately operable spuds carried by the other portion,and means to swing said one portion about the hinge means as one axis.

2. A structure as in claim 1, in which said last named means comprisesseparate cable drums mounted on one of said hull portions, and cablesextending from said drums to connections with the other hull portionadjacent the sides thereof.

3. A structure as in claim 1, in which the hull portions at theiradjacent ends are formed with a longitudinal slope toward the hingingmeans.

8,109,780 .stantially fulfills the objects 01 the invention as 4. Astructure as in claim 1, in which the hull portions at their adjacentends are formed with a longitudinal slope toward the hinging means, andsaid hinging means is disposed centrally of the width of the hullportions.

5. .A dredge structure comprising a hull portion adapted to be directlysupported by water,

separately operable spuds carried thereby, another hull portion,dredging means carried by said other portion, means connecting the hullportions together for relative swinging movement in a horizontal plane,and means to control such movement.

6. A dredge structure comprising a hull portion, means to maintain saidportion against horizontal movement on the water, another hull portionhaving a dredging mechanism thereon and disposed beyond the first namedhull portion, means connecting the hull portions together at theiradjacent ends in longitudinally extending relationship for relativeswinging movement in a horizontal plane, and means between the hullportions whereby said other portion may be swung to one side or theother about said connecting means as an axis.

ROBERT GILMORE LE TOURNEAU.

